Three girls make history at Australian Brumby Yearling Championships

Rachel Granger (17), Angela Pengilly (16), and Lani Herbert (12) formed the first team ever to compete at the championships, and were the only youth team to qualify their horse.

The championships are a unique event in the Australian equestrian landscape.

Unlike most events, competitors are provided with brumbies three months out. This competitions asks participants to train their horses to the requisite standards within 99 days, which can prove extremely difficult with wild horses who have often never felt a human's touch before.

"You just don't have any basis to work with, everything has to be built. Even getting them to look at you has to be built," team coach Lauren Woodbridge said.

"They've never eaten hard food before. The Brumby Association has given them hay, so they'll eat hay, but that's the kind of starting point you're looking at."

The team picked up their filly, named Aspen, in early August. In the three months they had to work with her, it took until roughly three weeks out from the competition for Aspen to grow comfortable enough for the girls to handle her.

From there, she developed in leaps and bounds, and by the time of the competition, she was one of the three horses, out of seven initially, who qualified for the final event in the Yarra Valley on Sunday, November 10.

At the end of the competition, the girls finished as reserve champions.

This was a phenomenal result from the team, who barely knew each other before the competition started, but were brought together by Woodbridge and developed a strong friendship throughout the event.

The hardest part of the competition came afterwards, when the girls had to say goodbye to Aspen.

"That was hard for the girls, there were a few tears when they had to say goodbye," Angela's mother, Roz, said.

"By the end of it, she was just so sweet, and was calmer than some of the others [brumbies] they'd had for quite a long time. She was really calm and chilled."